I focus on the impact of globalization between Asia and the U.S. Priors include Mumbai correspondent for The Wall Street Journal where I covered business in India, across sectors, as well as some of the big western companies in India; Staff Writer with Forbes Magazine in New York where I covered Asia and reported stories from Afghanistan, China, Hong Kong, India and Pakistan; and Reuters also in New York. While at Forbes, I won an Overseas Press Club of America award for best business reporting from abroad for a story I did on Maoists in India and their clash with corporate India. I'm currently based in India, where I write about business and development in the neighborhood. You can follow me on Twitter: @mbahree or contact me through e-mail: Megha.Bahree@gmail.com.

Juergen Fitschen, Deutsche Bank’s co-chief executive, told shareholders that the bank would not be involved in the Abbot Point project, which the world heritage agency Unesco has warned risks damaging the fragile ecosystem of the reef, the Financial Times reported.

“There is no consensus between Unesco and the Australian government regarding the expansion of Abbot Point in the vicinity of the Great Barrier Reef. Our policy requires such a consensus at the least. We therefore would not consider applications for the financing of an expansion any further,” the FT reported Fitschen saying.

Th decision by Deutsche Bank, which has previously arranged financing for companies at Abbot Point port, came after a concerted campaign by environmental activists.

Adani Enterprises, India’s largest coal importer, had bought the Abbot Point Terminal in Queensland–one of the country’s bigger coal terminals–for about $2 billion in May 2011 in an attempt to increase its access to more energy resources to meet rising demand for power in India.

But the project has been controversial from the start because while it would unlock billions of dollars worth of coal reserves, that process would require millions of tons of sediment to be dumped near the reef, potentially endangering the world heritage-listed site.

Unesco has warned it would place the Great Barrier Reef on its endangered list because of the port expansion.

Deutsche Bank was not the only global bank to pull back from the controversial project. The FT reported HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver as saying it was “extraordinarily unlikely it would go near it.”

There’s a very good chance that billionaire Gautam Adani-owned company can easily line up financing from other banks, especially for a project as big as this one. However, if there is a massive build up in public sentiment against the project, it’s possible that the tide could still turn against it, forcing more such withdrawals.

Case in point being another Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal whose London-listed Vedanta ResourcesVedanta Resources was denied permission a few years ago to mine bauxite in a forest in the eastern Indian state of Orissa after massive public outrage against the project, a historic decision at that point as I reported then.

Vedanta had been trying to mine bauxite in a forest called the Niyamgiri Hills which had been home for generations to an indigenous tribe of 8,000 called the Dongria Kondh who had been living off the bounty of the thick forests. The region was also had an estimated 2 billion tons of bauxite along a 300-mile belt. Hence the clash.

Vedanta had first built an aluminum refinery near the proposed mining site and was importing bauxite from other regions to fuel it while it awaited the greenlight on its mining plans.

In the midst of the protests against the proposed mining, Amnesty International issued a damning report on the refinery and the proposed mine–harsh enough that the Church of England and the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust sold their $5.7 million and $2.9 million investments, respectively, in Vedanta.

I’m not saying Adani’s Abbot Point project is illegal–the local government has approved it–or that it won’t get the required financing from other process. But there’s no guarantee, as yet, that it will get done either. Anything is possible.

Post Your Comment

Post Your Reply

Forbes writers have the ability to call out member comments they find particularly interesting. Called-out comments are highlighted across the Forbes network. You'll be notified if your comment is called out.